Standing proudly at the center of a tiny village deep in German wine country is the church of St. Jacob and locked away inside its 1,000-year-old tower is a bell emblazoned with a Swastika and the inscription: ‘Everything for the fatherland. Adolf Hitler.’

While the heirloom has gone largely unnoticed for the last 82 years, a recent report in a local newspaper has brought controversy to the 700-person town of Herxheim am Berg.

Since discovering the tribute, 73-year-old Sigrid Peters, the church organist, is demanding it be removed, saying it is not right that christenings and marriages are marked by ringing a bell celebrating the Nazis(((oy Vey!))).

But pastor Helmut Meinhardt believes the church should keep using the bell, while mayor Ronald Becker told The Local that trying to remove the inscription could alter the sound, and would cost upward of £40,000.

Some, including bell expert Birgit Müller, are even arguing that it should be protected under historic conservation laws – saying there are no other known examples.

The bell may hang in the church tower, but it actually belongs to the local government – and it will be up to them to decide its fate. Mayor Becker is firmly in favour of it staying in place, saying he has the ‘backing’ of the town.

I hope there are other bells with the same holy sigil, elsewhere, tucked away in germanic church towers, far from the envious & greedy eyes of others. Imagine, the sound pulsating across villages & countryside…to the extreme horizons of what was once a Fatherland. A sacred metallic mantra. For those who are still there, hoping……